Sc. and north. dial. [Of unknown derivation. (It has been compared with BULLY and G. buhle, but to little purpose.)]
1. Fellow; companion, comrade, mate.
c. 1505. Dunbar, In secreit place, 31. Be nocht our bosteous to ȝour billie.
a. 1750[?]. Graeme & Bewick, in Scott, Minstr. (1812), II. 292. Your son … is but bad, And billie to my son he canna be.
1786. Burns, Let. J. Tennant. My auld schoolfellow, preacher Willie, The manly tar, my mason Billie.
1808. Cumbrian Ball., xlii. 96. My billy Aye thought her the flow’r o’ them aw.
1863. Atkinson, Provinc. Danby, Billy, a comrade, familiar acquaintance.
2. ‘Fellow,’ in the wider sense (familiar).
a. 1774. Fergusson, Hallowfair. Here chapman billies take their stand And show their bonny wallies.
1790. Burns, Tam O’Shanter. When chapman billies leave the street.
1815. Scott, Guy M., xxv. ‘There I met wi’ Tam o’ Todshaw, and a wheen o’ the rest o’ the billies on the water side.’
3. Brother. (The corresponding feminine is tittie. Both are now considered rude.) Hence Billyhood, brotherhood.
1724. Ramsay, Tea-t. Misc. (1733), I. 22. His minny Meg upo’ her back Bare baith him and his billy.
a. 1748. Dick O’ the Cow, ii. (in Scott, Minstr.). Johnie Armstrang to Willie did say—‘Billie, a riding we will gae.’
1818. Hogg, Brownie, II. 31 (Jam.). That’s a stretch of billyhood that I was never up to afore.
